NBA: Hate draft lottery, tanking? Here's an idea

Saturday

Dec 28, 2013 at 10:54 PMDec 28, 2013 at 11:54 PM

Bill Doyle NBA

The NBA Draft was established to help teams win. Unfortunately, it has evolved into a system that promotes losing.

Twelve of the 15 teams in the Eastern Conference own losing records and have no realistic chance of dethroning Miami as conference champion. So fans of most of those teams want them to lose in order to improve their chances of landing one of the coveted players expected to enter the 2014 NBA Draft.

There is something fundamentally wrong with that. Fans should never have to root for their teams to lose.

If the NBA adopts a recent plan to revamp the way the draft order is determined, fans can bid goodbye to tanking, the lottery and the NBA Draft as we know it. According to Grantland.com, Celtics assistant general manager Mike Zarren has proposed that the 30 NBA teams take turns making picks each year and the owners are considering it.

Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge told the Boston Herald that he likes the proposal because it eliminates any reason to lose in order to improve a team's draft order. Avery Bradley, whom the Celtics selected with the 19th pick in 2010, told the T&G Saturday he would rather stick with the current system because the new one would make it more difficult for the weaker teams to rebuild.

The plan isn't perfect. With the selection order set well before each draft, the top players may wait a year to declare for the draft if they don't want to play for the teams with the high picks. Bad teams, even those not trying to lose, could take longer to improve without high draft picks, as Bradley pointed out. Nevertheless, the NBA should adopt the plan because it's better than the current draft system, and it eliminates even the perception that teams might be tanking.

For instance, when the Celtics lost consecutive home games after leading by 21 and 18 points this month, fans may have wondered if they did so on purpose. When Courtney Lee spent the entire fourth quarter on the bench against Washington after scoring 10 points in the fourth the previous game against Detroit, it could have prompted questions about the motives of coach Brad Stevens. The first-year Celtics coach shouldn't have to put up with such doubts, and Rajon Rondo shouldn't have to be accused of purposely delaying his return from knee surgery.

Zarren's plan isn't expected to be approved by the league anytime soon. It reportedly has been bantered around in the league office, but has not yet been submitted to the owners. It couldn't be adopted until 2020 after existing trades of draft picks have been finalized. For the first year of Zarren's plan, one last lottery would determine the first 14 draft picks, and won-lost records would determine picks 15-30.

Under Zarren's plan, each NBA team would draft sixth or better every five years. Over the past 40 years, the Celtics have drafted sixth or better seven times, averaging once every 5.7 years. The Celtics drafted Larry Bird with the sixth pick in 1978, Kevin McHale third in 1980, Len Bias second in 1986, Antoine Walker sixth in 1996, Chauncey Billups third and Ron Mercer sixth in 1997, and Jeff Green fifth in 2007.

Teams may land better players in trades for future draft picks if the position of those picks were determined.

The NBA has tinkered with the draft several times. During the early years of the league, teams were allowed to make territorial picks to help sell tickets. The Celtics made Tommy Heinsohn a territorial pick out of nearby Holy Cross in 1956, meaning no other team could select him. Heinsohn went on to help the Celtics win eight titles in his nine years as a player, and he coached them to two more championships before becoming a legendary broadcaster.

In 1966, territorial picks were discontinued, and through 1984 the last-place teams in each conference flipped a coin to determine which team would draft first. In 1985, the draft lottery debuted, and it has been tweaked several times. It's time for the NBA to improve the draft process yet again.

All-Star voting

In the latest All-Star fan voting released Thursday, Rondo received the most votes of any Celtic, even though he hasn't played this season while recovering from knee surgery. Rondo ranks sixth among Eastern Conference backcourt players with 78,693 votes. Green is ninth among frontcourt players with 78,693 votes. Neither deserves to move up in the voting, and if the Celtics' record remains below .500, the league's coaches shouldn't pick any Celtics as All-Star reserves. The last time no Celtics were chosen by the fans or the coaches to take part in the All-Star Game was 2007, the year before the Celtics acquired Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Not counting the injured Rondo, the only current Celtic who has played in an NBA All-Star Game is Gerald Wallace. In 2010, Wallace became the first Charlotte Bobcat to be selected to play in the event and was named to the NBA All-Defensive first team at the end of that season.

Knicks after Rondo?

The latest trade rumor involving the Celtics has the Knicks trying to acquire Rondo. Although Rondo appears far from ready to play, espn.com has reported that the Knicks hope Rondo will force the Celtics to trade him by threatening not to stay with the team after his contract expires following the 2014-15 season.

Carmelo Anthony used that ploy to force Denver to deal him to New York on Feb. 22, 2011. The Knicks are desperate to salvage what has been a shockingly bad season, and they believe they need to pair Anthony with a better point guard than Raymond Felton, who is sidelined with a groin injury.

Such a trade makes no sense for the Celtics. They shouldn't trade their best player to a team in their division, especially to a team in New York, and the Knicks don't have any young, promising players the Celtics would want in return. Neither Iman Shumpert nor Tim Hardaway Jr. would be enough, and the Knicks sent their first-round pick in the loaded 2014 draft to Denver as part of the Anthony deal.

Anthony has advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs only twice in his first 10 years in the league, including last season when the Knicks knocked out the Celtics while Rondo was out with his knee injury. The Celtics shouldn't help Anthony improve upon that embarrassing record.

Wallace an unlikely coach

You could have won a lot of money if you had bet someone that the volatile Rasheed Wallace would become an NBA coach, but that's the role he assumed this season. Wallace is an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons under Maurice Cheeks, who coached him for three years in Portland.

Wallace is the all-time leader in technical fouls with more than 300, including a league-record 41 in the 2000-01 season. He was suspended in 2003 for seven games for threatening referee Tim Donaghy, who was jailed years later for betting on NBA games.

Wallace helped the Celtics reach the 2010 NBA Finals in his only season in Boston, but he spent far too much time missing 3-pointers than planting his 6-foot-11 body under the basket. Wallace is working with Detroit's young big men, Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe.

Drummond, 20, a second-year center out of UConn, is averaging 13.1 points and 12.5 rebounds, up from 7.9 points and 7.6 rebounds last season. Monroe, 23, a fourth-year center out of Georgetown, is averaging 14.2 points and 8.9 rebounds. Fortunately, they've attempted only one 3-pointer between them.

If the Celtics must deal Rondo, they should send him to Detroit in a deal that includes Drummond or Monroe. But tell Wallace to stay in Detroit.